That looks terrible!

Me with Boy Bishop.
Boy Bishop has a mitre, and hair.
I have neither

There are many wonderful things about not having much hair left. God in His wisdom has taken it away, and so I am most thin on top. I tend to think of it in terms of St Etheldreda, who had a goiter on her throat in later life, which she put down to enjoying wearing sparkly necklaces when she was young. In my youth I enjoyed my hair far too much.

Neck covering must be hiding the goiter

I would gel it, and back comb it, and dye it black. I treated it terribly badly, and took far too much delight in it. So I think that one of the reasons for the current lack-of-hair business can be traced back to that. Of course there are some (ha!) who would spuriously claim that years of treating my hair badly may have led to its not being present any more... but I laugh at such a simplistic explanation and prefer to think of God sending celestial beings whenever I am asleep and cutting off my hair with heavenly scissors. This, I am sure, will be mystically returned to me at the general resurrection of the dead.

Type of scissors reputedly used by angels
in the nightly activities to punish wayward ex-Goths
for an over fondness for their hairstyles
in their younger days.

So, with not much hair, I need not worry about 'bad hair days'. I need not worry that it is all sticking up, making me look like a toilet brush. Or that it is strangely flattened at the back, meaning that the offender has just woken from sleep. And there is never the worry of whiplash caused by an over eager comb-over.

This is EXACTLY what I used to look like with bed hair.

I have no need to worry about such things.

Of course I can still have an unfortunate photo taken, even if my hair is fine.

So I feel sorry for the Pope, because those naughty men who put up all the pictures of him in Rome were really mean and used a terrible photo.

Terrible photo. They should have used one of him which was all smiley.

Do you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they even did it on purpose.

Still, his hair's OK.

Happy Oriel Day!

The Coat of Arms of Oriel College
three leopards (lions)

Happy feast day to you! Happy feast day to you!

Happy feast day, dear 'The House of Mary, the Blessed Virgin in Oxford'!

Happy feast day to you!

Front quad of Oriel College

All over the world, old Orielenses celebrate this day, our college feast day. For although as a college, Oriel is know as Oriel, its correct title is that found above, 'The House of Mary the Blessed Virgin in Oxford'. As an Oriel man I am proud both of my institution, which I was privileged to attend for both my MA and MPhil, but even more proud to have been educated in a college dedicated to Our Lady.

The Purification of the Virgin

'But', I hear you cry, 'you're a Castleman now'! And indeed as a member of University College Durham I am a Castleman, but it's rather like your first love, you never quite forget her... So I am both/and, not either/or!

University College Durham
'Castle' - my present alma mater 

Rejoice with me on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. Rejoice at the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Rejoice on the great feast day...

Our Lady of Vengeance
destroying heresy and evil
protecting the Church from malice

...and may the Blessed and Most Holy Virgin Mary, protectress and co-redemptrix, guard our Holy Church for all the wiles of Satan, may she stand victorious with St Michael and all the Angels and Saints.
Amen.

For goodness sake...

...will someone please tell me what is happening?

We have the Bishops of Malta saying that the divorced and re-married can receive communion, link here, and now we have the German Bishops saying the same, here.

Cardinal Muller, head of the CDF

And we also have the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith,  Cardinal Muller, link here, saying that this is simply impossible, that unless the couple are living as brother and sister they cannot receive communion.

This is the substance of the sacrament, and no power in heaven or on earth, neither an angel, nor the pope, nor a council, nor a law of the bishops, has the faculty to change it.

This is not just some Cardinal having an opinion (we know that Cardinal's can be completely ignored nowadays) but the head of the Church's Doctrinal body. Is this the Pope's response to the Dubia? Or is Muller about to be axed, in a Franciscan manner?

Behold the axe of mercy

So do we believe the Maltese Bishops? Or the Germans? Or the head of the CDF?

BECAUSE THEY ARE SAYING DIRECTLY OPPOSITE THINGS

This is fine if you're a bishop, living in your palace, or a bunch of them playing at local government, or even if you're a Pope who lives in a suite of rooms in a hotel, none of whom have to sit down with real people, or know what is going on in their lives. They all seem to have forgotten the laity, who have no idea, or at best a half idea, of what is going on. And of course, they have forgotten the priests (as usual) who have to try to explain this dog's breakfast, and even more worryingly, have to administer what could be "judgment upon himself." (I Cor 11, 28)

And our own Bishops? Thankfully they have not said anything yet.

And no one has the faintest idea of what is going on. But don't worry,  because it only concerns the sacraments of Marriage, Confession and the Eucharist, oh and the salvation of souls.

I was going to say it is like fiddling while Rome burns. But it's not, it's like playing with petrol and matches and then realising that the little game has got a bit out of hand and has now engulfed the world.

Ecce SSPX

Yee Haa - its cowboy time

Could it be that, like some knights of old, or a bunch of cowboys in a cloud of dust, the arrival of the SSPX into communion could be a glimmer, just a glimmer, of joy on the horizon?

Rorate Caeli has two brief reports, here and here.

Lasoo me Jesus in the rodeo of life

I would assume that they would have no truck with bizzarreness from Maltese Bishops, or weird liturgical practices. And once they have returned to the fold, and, presumably declared not to have been too affected by all that 'loose talk of excommunication costs lives' business, so that if they wander off again then there would be no talk of invalidity.

Dallas Cowboys - see what I did there?
Cowboys to football in one easy go

I wonder if the SSPX would accept transfers. I believe it happens in football. You can swap from one to the other.

Cowboy Mass - Yikes!!!

Thank would be an interesting thing, wouldn't it? If our bishops start acting like the Maltese ones and demanding that priests give communion "for their salvation or damnation" contrary to the teaching of Christ. And if we go back to the doggerel of 1970s ... etc etc etc. And suddenly there is an SSPX 'Ordinariate (?)' on offer...

New cowboy biretta, note the lack of pompom.
Real cowboys don't wear pompoms.
They just carry the word of God under their arm like a Frenchman carries a baguette...
...nonchalantly.

The Return of Papal Power

Pope Urban VIII who used the Deposing Power of Popes to get rid of Duke Odoardo Farnese

The Deposing Power of Popes is the ability of the Pope to depose any ruler, or government of his or its power to rule, and thus their subjects of their need to obey. You can see a Wiki article here. Many of us had thought that this was no longer operative. However, I myself have always followed the line that until a kind of pan-Christendom came into being again, that the Pope would simply not use it. In fact, here in the University, we were talking about political, papalist claims just a few weeks ago, and the general consensus was that this was one of those things which simply would never be enacted and belonged to a bygone age.  

Pope Pius V who deposed Queen Elizabeth I

Of course we usually do not talk about the Deposing Power much, and definitely not in the days after Vatican II and all that 'discussion' about religious liberty and Dignitatis Humanae. 

Pope Boniface VIII who had a go at King Philip IV of France

However, the Deposing Power is the ability of the Pope to directly intervene in a State's governance and either rule it directly or call for new elections/appointments. It is quite a thing. I had thought that with the existence of the United Nations, and the Vatican nowadays trying to be accepted as an equal, and not as a superior with automatic rights to intervene and depose, that we would never see it even referred to again. 

Pope Innocent III, said to have deposed King John

They say we live in interesting times - in fact, every age says as much, but honestly, the resurrection of a high Papalism from the 16th century is not something I saw coming. 


***

New Catholic Dictionary (1910): 

"Present day popes have no mind to resuscitate their deposing power. As Pius IX said to the deputation of the Academia of the Catholic Religion, 21 July 1871: "Although certain Popes have at times exercised their deposing power in extreme cases, they did so according to the public law then in force and by the agreement of the Christian nations who reverenced in the Pope the Supreme Judge of Christ extended to passing judgment even civiliter on princes and individual states. But altogether different is the present condition of affairs and only malice can confound things and times so different." "

How will they vote? And why?

The issue of Labour politicians defying their leadership is interesting see here. It seems at first sight that this is a noble endeavour. After all the MP is simply following the stated aims of their electorate. So if a majority of their constituency voted to stay in Europe, they simply couldn’t vote to enact Article 50. They would not dream of going against them.

I wonder… imagine if you will, that a UK government was foolish enough to allow a referendum on the death penalty. Almost everyone says would be passed for some limited cases. Shhhh, but don’t worry, because if it were passed only for child murders or the like, within a few years it would be available for anyone who hadn’t paid their parking fines - after all that’s what happened for the abortion law. So I wonder what these same ‘liberal’ politicians would do then. Would they follow their electorate, or would they follow their party (especially if it were against the death penalty), or would they suddenly have a high doctrine of parliamentary democracy?

I suspect, old cynic that I am, that this is just a way of trying to ignore the referendum… and masking it in high sounding words.

You know it's Christmas when

You get your shiny shoes out!!!

Christmas Mass Times

St Mary's 

Great Swinburne

Christmas Eve: 9.30pm (Carols) Holy Mass 10.00pm

Christmas day: 9.00am

St Oswald's

Bellingham

Christmas Day: 11.00am

It is advertised via the LMS that there will be Latin Mass (Tridentine) at noon in Swinburne. I did not change this in time. I will be back in Swinburne by about 12.20pm. If there is anyone around I will say Mass for them. 
Many apologies for the confusion.

Untold Disasters around the Corner

The blood of Saint Januarius has failed to liquefy. The Catholic Herald has an account of it here. We all remember that it only partially liquefied last year in the presence of the Pope. Disasters bound when the blood remains solid.

Yikes. I though that enough had happened already. I dread to think what is around the corner.

It might be a natural disaster or perhaps supernatural. Cardinals about to issue formal acts of correction and Popes ignoring their saintly predecessors affirmation of the teaching of Christ, are up there as well.

So I have decided to try to help the situation and appease St Januarius. I am going to have a new catch phrase: "By the blood of St Januarius!"

It will be like "By the power of Greyskull", but religious.

I’ve just discovered J

NO this is not some ghastly drug, which leaves the recipient comatose and open to all manner of suggestions: like… it’s better to have the liturgy in English, Vegemite is an acceptable replacement for Marmite, watching Youtube in the library counts as work (yep, I’m in the library and that is exactly what the chap opposite me is doing. OK, OK so I’m writing a blog post but sheesh! Youtube, really?!)

Rather it is a mystical drive. It is a place which exists and yet doesn’t exist. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury… no hang on that last one is a lime from Macbeth. It is a J drive.

This is something which my beloved university, by the grace of God, Durham, provides for people. You do something to your computer and it finds the J drive, then you put copies of your work there and its safe, even if your computer is eaten by a wild mountain goat, and your USB key finds itself in the inner parts of a wallaby. Yes even then, your work is safe. Safe as houses. Safe as houses all called ‘J’.

I mention this for it would have been good to have found out about mystical J before I lost my USB key and all of my work. Yep, all of it. I had to go seriously Zen. I lost it for about three weeks.

Eventually I found it in the mud, soaked through, next to the place where I park my car, and mirabile dictu, even after being out in the elements for three weeks, it worked.  And so, dear reader, I married it. No, that’s not right. And so dear reader, I made myself the promise never to do anything so mind numbingly stupid again.

And now I have found J and my life is complete. J will help me. J will be my friend. J will look out for me when times get tough and I’ve lost my way (and all my PhD work).

And do you know what? J is the first letter of the German translation of the vocalised transliteration of the Name of the LORD in the Old Testament.

WHO can believe in coincidence after that????

WHO!!!